I had seen images of French artist Alben’s work online, but had never seen them in person. When I attended the gala opening of Alben’s latest exhibit “New Paintings & Sculptures,” at gallery nine5 in New York on October 14, 2010, I don’t think I was prepared for how cool his works are. He marries the worlds of street art, graffiti, pop iconography, irony and humor in all of his paintings and sculptures. As I toured gallery nine5, I found myself discovering more and more symbols in each piece and the more I uncovered, the more I fell in love.

Buste Inbox by Alben

In addition to wonderful paintings, there were equally awesome sculptural pieces filled with common objects from toys to silverware (as you can see above). I spoke with the artist and I attempted to gush over how much I love his work. He told me that his English was not very good, so it was hard for him to converse, so I pointed around the room and put my hand on my heart. Alben cracked a big smile. If you are not in New York, you can see an online catalog of Alben’s work at this link. If you are in New York, do not miss “New Paintings & Sculptures” which runs until October 29, 2010 at gallery nine5 and is located at 24 Spring Street. Thanks to Alben for being a nice guy and creating wonderful art and also thanks to Rebecca at gallery nine5 for always being so welcoming and telling me the backstories on so many of the works.

See 2 more images from Alben as well as the artist himself, after the jump.